Family Advent Four Weeks of Family Activities User Guide
- June 1, 2024
- Family Advent
Table of Contents
Four Weeks of Family Activities
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Product Information
Family Advent Guide
Four Weeks of Family Activities
Specifications:
- Product Name: Family Advent Guide
- Duration: Four weeks
- Activities: Family-oriented activities for Advent
Product Usage Instructions
Week 1: Hope
DISCUSS: Reflect on hopes for Christmas,
challenges of waiting, and the hope God’s people had for the
Messiah.
ACTIVITY: Decorate Christmas cookies.
LISTEN: O Holy Night
Week 2: Peace
DISCUSS: Identify areas lacking peace,
obstacles to peace with God, and how to attain true peace.
ACTIVITY: Make Christmas cards or ornaments for
loved ones.
LISTEN: Silent Night
Week 3: Joy
DISCUSS: Explore sources of joy at Christmas,
the angels’ proclamation of great joy at Jesus’s birth, and ways to
share joy.
ACTIVITY: Enjoy Christmas lights or go
caroling.
LISTEN: Joy to the World
Week 4: Love
DISCUSS: Discuss loved ones, God’s ultimate act
of love, and how to demonstrate God’s love to others.
ACTIVITY: Give a gift to those in need.
LISTEN: Away in a Manger
Week 5: Born
DISCUSS: Share what excites you about
Christmas, John the Baptist’s witness to Jesus, and identifying
people to share the Savior’s story with.
ACTIVITY: Pray together as a family for
opportunities to share Jesus’s story.
LISTEN: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Question: What is the duration of the Family Advent Guide?
Answer: The Family Advent Guide spans four
weeks with specific activities and discussions for each week.
Question: How can we best share hope, peace, joy, love, and the
message of Jesus during this Christmas season?
Answer: Engage in the suggested activities,
have meaningful discussions as a family, and seek opportunities to
demonstrate these virtues in your interactions with others.
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FAMILY ADVENT
GUIDE
Four Weeks of Family Activities
© Inkling Innovations 2019, updated Watermark Community Church 2023
ADVENT · WEEK 1
HOPE
The first week of Advent is the week of Hope. Hope is looking forward to
something, waiting with expectation for something yet to come. The story of
Jesus’s birth actually began thousands of years before He was born. God
promised His people that He would provide a Messiah–a Savior–to save them from
their sins. For centuries, the people of Israel waited with great hope for the
Messiah, God’s special Savior, to come. When Jesus was born, He brought hope
to a
dark, lost, hopeless world.
READ Isaiah 7:14 · Micah 5:2-5 · Matthew 1:18-25 Matthew 2:1-6
DISCUSS What is something you are hoping for this Christmas? What is the
hardest part about waiting until Christmas? What did God’s people hope for?
Why? How can we, as a family, share hope with others?
ACTIVITY Decorate Christmas cookies.
LISTEN O Holy Night
ADVENT · WEEK 2
PEACE
The second week of Advent is the week of Peace. The word “peace” is the Hebrew
word “shalom”, which means “completeness” or “well-being.” When Jesus was
born, He did not come into a world with shalom/ peace–it has a lot of
problems! Some problems even include wars, sickness, and conflict. Jesus
didn’t come just to end these things. Instead, He first came to make us all
“complete,” to have shalom/peace, by saving us from our worst problem:
sinfulness. By His good life, death, and resurrection from the dead, He
defeated sin and death! So, all we have to do is trust in Jesus as the Son of
God, who did these things for us, and we will have the true peace/shalom of
God. This week, we are reminded that Jesus brings the promise
of peace to our lives.
READ
Isaiah 9:6-7 · Luke 2:4-14 · Romans 5:1-9
DISCUSS
What are some areas where we don’t always have peace in our lives? (Not
getting along with our family or friends, overloaded schedule, finances, etc.)
What are some things that can keep us from having peace with God? (Not obeying
our parents, breaking rules at school, arguing with our spouse, etc.)
What do we have to do to have the true peace/shalom of God?
ACTIVITY
Make Christmas cards or ornaments for family and friends.
LISTEN
Silent Night
ADVENT · WEEK 3
JOY
The third week of Advent is Joy. Joy is great happiness or delight and a deep
sense of well-being that goes beyond our circumstances. Joy comes from the
Lord in good times and bad. The angels describe Jesus’s birth as “good news of
great joy” because He came to be our Savior! The Bible tells us that right
after they announced this news to the shepherds, thousands of angels appeared
and sang glory to God because Jesus had been born. This week, we are reminded
of the joy of salvation in Jesus–the most incredible gift that
was given to a lost and broken world.
READ
Psalm 20:5-8 · Psalm 67:1-5 · Isaiah 12:1-6 · Luke 2:8-21 1 Peter 1:8-12
DISCUSS What are some things that bring us joy at Christmas? Why did the
angels say that the news of Jesus’s birth is great joy? (Because He came to be
the Savior of all people.) How can we share His joy with others during this
Christmas season?
ACTIVITY Go look at Christmas lights or go caroling in your neighborhood.
LISTEN Joy to the World
ADVENT · WEEK 4
LOVE
The fourth week of Advent is the week of Love. God loves us so much that He
sent His only son to be born like us, live the sinless life we couldn’t, and
die in our place for our sin. But Jesus did not stay dead. He rose from the
grave to prove that He is the Son of God and that His offer for us to have
eternal life is true. We can spend eternity with Him! All we have to do is
believe that Jesus is the Son of God, who truly came to save us, and trust Him
as our Lord and Savior. God’s great love for us is displayed in the gift of
love through His Son, Jesus Christ, so that we can share love with others. We
are loved and can love one another because God loved us first, and He loves us
more than we will ever know.
READ
Exodus 34:6-7 · Lamentations 3:22-24 · John 3:16-17 1 John 4:7-11
DISCUSS Who are the people you love the most? What is God’s biggest act of
love for us? How much do you think God had to love us in order to give His Son
for us? How can we share and show God’s love to others?
ACTIVITY Give a gift to those in need (i.e., a charitable organization, a
neighbor in need, a grieving friend, etc.).
LISTEN Away in a Manger
ADVENT · CHRISTMAS DAY
BORN
Today, we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. He was born just like us so
that God the Son would become just like us, except He lived without sin. Jesus
perfectly reveals God to us, and by knowing Jesus, we know God. He is grace,
truth, love, and mercy for everyone who has faith in His work for their
salvation and who repents of their sin that caused Him to die and rise again
for them. These words were written so that we may believe that Jesus is who He
said He is, the Son of God, and that by believing we have life in His name.
So, this Christmas Day, let’s celebrate the best gift God could possibly give
us: Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection for us. Then, let’s do what John the
Baptist did: tell each other and everyone about God’s
best gift for us! READ
John 1:1-34 · John 20:30-31
DISCUSS
What about Christmas makes you so excited that you want to tell everyone you
see? (Favorite gift, house with the most lights, trip you took, etc.)
Why did John the Baptist want to tell everyone about Jesus? (He witnessed for
Jesus, Jesus came before him, grace and truth come from him, unworthy to untie
Jesus’s sandals, Jesus is He who takes away the sin of the world, He’s the Son
of God)
Who are some people with whom you could share the story of Jesus coming to be
our Savior?
ACTIVITY
Pray together as a family for who you can share the story of Jesus coming to
be our Savior.
LISTEN
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing